The World Cup final pits two teams bidding for a fourth title against each other, the top two teams in the rankings but also the two teams who best play to their super strengths. South Africa’s is the way they use their bench, New Zealand’s is the speed at which they move the ball and I’ve been so impressed how both sides have embraced that during the tournament.
I look at New Zealand, who suffered a record defeat at Twickenham before coming to the World Cup and then lost their opening match to France. What did they learn from those defeats? When you get a loss like that at Twickenham, you can let it define you and you can feel sorry for yourself. Or you can learn from it, it can give you hyperfocus about who you are. How can we best represent ourselves, what does that look like? Because it wasn’t a true reflection of them, whereas the victory over Ireland a few weeks later was. It helps you create this veneer of protection. It blocks out noise and strengthens you as a team if you harness it in the right way.
